Stents are inserted into a blood vessel to provide an open path within the blood vessel, and they have been widely used intravascular angioplasty treatment of occluded blood vessels and other applications. Stents can be self-expanding or can be expanded by a radial force applied from inside the stent, for example when the stent is fitted with a balloon.
A braided stent can be characterized by a tube of metal wires woven together with a plain weaving technique. During delivery to a treatment site, a braided stent can travel through a catheter in an elongated, collapsed configuration, having a small diameter, and the braided stent can enlarge in diameter at a treatment site. Proper treatment with a braided stent can require that the stent extend radially to the walls of the body lumen in which the stent is implanted. Although braided stents can be self-expanding, such implants typically open with low opening forces, and therefore may not fully open to conform to a vessel wall. Post deployment, ancillary devices such as guidewires, catheters, balloons, etc. can be used to cross the braid and attempt to further expand the braided stent to improve vessel wall conformity. Issues such as unintentional braid movement or inability to fully open the braid commonly occur. Further, a braided implant that is separated from a delivery wire cannot be recovered for repositioning.